The nearby barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1068 serves as a proxy for helping astronomers understand the fireworks taking place at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, driven by eruptions from a supermassive black hole. Because we live inside the Milky Way, much of our view of the galaxy’s center is blocked by intervening clouds of gas and dust. But, looking 45 million light-years away at NGC 1068 gives astronomers a birds-eye view of similar black hole outbursts. The inset Hubble Space Telescope image resolves hydrogen clouds as small as 10 light-years across within 150 light-years of the core. The clouds are glowing because they are caught in a "searchlight" of radiation beamed out of the galaxy's black hole, which is larger and more active than the black hole in the heart of our galaxy.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Alex Filippenko (UC Berkeley), William Sparks (STScI), Luis C. Ho (KIAA-PKU), Matthew A Malkan (UCLA), Alessandro Capetti (STScI)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1068 |
| Object Description | Active, spiral galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 2h 42m 40.99s |
| Dec. Position | 0° 0' 52.33" |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Distance | 45 million light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from programs (M.Malkan), (A. Filippenko), (C. Hu), and (W. Sparks) |
| Instrument | WFC3, ACS/WFC, WFPC2 |
| Filters | F606W, F658N, F814W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample wide and narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F606W, Orange: F814W, Red: F658N |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
